Half-Blood Academy for the Gifted and Talented
by Despot
Summary: Percy is just a normal high-school senior trying to survive his last year at an incredible boarding school, but when he meets the new student of House Athena, things start to go a little awry. Follow Percy, Annabeth, and friends through their journeys to adulthood as they come to terms with their pasts and discover who they are. M for sex, language, mature themes, etc.


**_Hey guys,_**

 ** _Yep, this looks like my first story, but it's actually not! I had an account on FanFiction before, but ended up abandoning it a while ago. So, I've decided to start fresh. The PJ books were and are my favorite series of all time, so why not do a story on it?_**

 ** _Not much left to say...I'll update monthly - maybe a little sooner or later depending on the flow of life. The rating is M for language, sex, and some serious themes coming up, so if you're not into that kind of stuff, you probably should not stick around for too long._**

 ** _Also, I didn't go try-hard editing this, so please forgive any errors. If I catch them whenever I read the story later, I'll be sure to update._**

 ** _Anyway, thanks for reading and leave a Review!_**

 ** _Peace Out,_**

 ** _Despot_**

* * *

 **Percy POV**

My skin melted under the sunlight; the sensation was euphoric – like honey cascading patiently along the line of my neck and onto my bare chest. As it passed over, my dormant goosebumps awakened and my minimal chest hair stood on-end.

I exhaled slowly.

Everything was serene, so much that if it weren't for the shifting sheets beside me, I would've thought I was completely alone. I cracked my eyes open and flipped my heavy head to the right.

"Good Morning, Percy." Her voice was raspy and tried.

I tried hard not to swallow. "Hey there, Strawberry."

She rolled her eyes and managed a soft chuckle, shuffling towards me and settling her slender chin on my chest. I ran my finger along the curvaceous dip in her waist in response. She shivered – maybe just now realizing that she was completely naked.

"Percy…" Her deep, forest pupils met mine. "…what time is it?"

That was a question I didn't want to hear; it signaled a new day and more things to do. My fingers quickly dispatched from her smooth waist and grappled onto something…lower. She arched her back, squealing the way she normally did when I surprised her.

"Percy!"

I gave her my signature, goof-off smirk; the key was to flash just the right amount of teeth in just the right place.

"We have school, Percy."

"And…?" I massaged her hip with my fingers.

She wrenched my hand off of her and sat up. " _And_ we need to _go_. Do you want to be late on the first day of school?

I flung my hand over the bedside and looked away. "Whatever. I can just add the tardy to my collection."

She frowned. I hated when she did that.

I sighed painfully. "Let's go."

The only thing I despised more than school was waking up. Actually, that was probably why I hated it so much. I moved reluctantly and propped myself onto my elbow, but Rachel pushed me back down. My back hit the mattress and I just looked at her.

She kissed my shoulder. "Percy?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Do you love me?"

The sunlight got a lot harsher and Rachel's fountain of scarlet hair began to glow as intensely as her expression. I was always tongue-twisted at time like these, despite by giant mouth.

"Unfortunately," I managed to answer with a dash of Percy-patented sarcasm.

She was having none of it.

"Percy, if you want this – _us_ – to last, you can't be late to school every other day. You know how my Dad feels about you already."

I tried not to roll my eyes. Mr. Dare was a millionaire-artist-and-capital-venture extraordinaire. He was so uptight and snobbish that for anyone who didn't already know him, it would be impossible to tell that he was entirely self-made. Rachel was just as fed-up with him, but she knew that he cared about her even if he was only at home for a week every month. Oh yes, Mr. Dare had expectations for his angelic daughter – expectations that I, street-trash Percy Jackson, didn't fit; I didn't have a father so I couldn't inherit a corporate business. I didn't have a trust fund sitting up my ass making me filthy rich. I had hair that fell over my forehead. Hell, if I wasn't in the top 10% of our class, he would've slammed the door on me all the way instead of leaving it just an inch open. But whether I liked it or not, he was Rachel's father and he wasn't going to go anywhere for a while.

A felt a cold but soft hand run over my jaw and I snapped out of my daze.

"He'll open up to you Percy." Rachel smiled. "You just need to wait a little longer. And not get held back for being late too often."

She chuckled at her own comment; for most people that would be weird, but I knew it was more. It meant that Rachel could make herself happy – she didn't need anyone else, including me. In fact I still couldn't understand why she put up with the dilemmas coupled with being Percy Jackson's girlfriend.

I was fucking charity case.

Hot blood churned in my stomach and I locked my lips with hers. She was startled and almost fell back, but I caught her with my arm and wrung her into my chest. Warm tears pulsed at my lashes.

Why was I always the one who needed to be needed?

There was that familiar, stabbing pain in my chest again. It always came at times like these, and although it usually only lasted a couple hours, I would be completely exhausted afterwards –needing to limp around everywhere like I had just run a marathon or something. Naturally, it only got worse when I went to school.

But hey, don't get the wrong idea…

I _liked_ school – the friends, pranks, parties, and hell, even the learning. It was the homework and the tests that ripped through my soul like blades.

I was still pretty groggy when I managed to smoothly pull us into the parking lot in my silver Benz. Okay, so it wasn't _my_ Benz; it was Rachel's, but she hated driving so much that she made me do it all the time. And it wasn't because of traffic or the clueless pedestrians. Nope, Rachel didn't drive because she couldn't stand focusing on something for extended periods of time. She had ADHD so it wasn't necessarily her fault. I mean, I had it too, but I tried to stop it from getting the best of me. It's how I managed to get good grades. We got out and I took notice of the thundering wind, partly due to my hair's whipping crazily like octopus tentacles and my tie in my mouth. Half-Blood Academy for the Gifted and Talented was not only a private school, but the preppiest of them all, so the rigid dress code was something of a privileged torture. I glanced up at the building as we approached the entrance. I didn't have to look around to know that Rachel was indulging in the digital wonders of her iPhone; she had gotten acclimated to Academy, and after going to a school ten months a year for three years, any normal person would also.

But I wasn't normal, and this was _not_ a normal school.

The entrance looked more like the one to the Grand Budapest Hotel. Towering, porcelain pillars stood at the four corners of the marble pathway leading up to the doors and supported a colossal sculpture of the school's mascot: a dragon; Peleus the Fire Drake, to be exact. He had burning yellow eyes and obsidian skin so realistic that a rumor entailing the automatic defeat of any enemy teams at home games due to Peleus's fear tactics was pretty much uniformly accepted. Even _I_ still shivered whenever I saw it, and I _went_ here.

The rest of the school was built like a medieval castle with a Gothic resonance. Intricately engraved buttresses flew around the Academy's perimeter – where the dorms were – holding up the emblems that marked the 12 different houses: a golden eagle for Zeus at center-front, a peacock for Hera, a sea-green horse for my house: Poseidon, a hellish, onyx dog-head with blood-red eyes for Hades, a dove for Aphrodite, a tawny python for Apollo, a scarlet boar's head for Ares, a white stag for Artemis, a silver owl for Athena, a black leopard for Dionysus, a burning Phoenix for Hephaestus, and finally a caduceus with two coiled snakes for Hermes. There were only about one thousand students at Half-Blood so each 'house' held just enough kids to start an intro-school, pride ruckus; the Athena kids always managed to send a chill up my spine whenever I passed them in the halls or in the courtyard. Granted, they may have had a good reason – but that's a story for a different time. I was going to school.

And I was happy.

"Hey Perce!" two voices shouted in slightly terrifying unison.

My head turned towards the noise. I had trouble recognizing their faces at first, but the mischievous, slanted grins gave them away. "Hey Connor! Hey Travis!"

They waved at me and stuck their tongues out at Rachel. She returned the favor, except with more flare and ferocity.

"I can't believe you're still friends with them," she complained.

I smiled and wrapped my hand around her waist. "You're just angry because of last time."

Rachel gagged and I laughed. The Stoll brothers were legendary for their pranks; in sophomore year they told Rachel that she had used a toothbrush washed in toilet water. It wasn't true, and they told her that after a while, but she freaked out anyway and ceremoniously burned her trusted toothbrush just in case. That was also around the time we started dating. She had ventured out by the pool to do her burning ritual and met me shirtless as I was walking towards the dorm. I had swim practice, which I went to daily, so I was surprised to see anyone on my usual route back, much less a hot redhead sacrificing a brush all satanically. I asked her what she was doing and why her face was so red, and one thing led to another. Soon I was crashing at her apartment during the summer days her father wasn't home, which were many. You would think my mom wouldn't be particularly happy with that, but she really was. Her name is Sally, a busy author – one of the reasons she wasn't here to see me off. She had almost flew from her writing conference in California back to New York, but I managed to convince her over Facetime while she was in the airport. It took a lot of pleading and explaining that nobody really cared about the first day of senior year since most of the seniors were at home calculating how many school days they could miss without losing enough credits to be held back. She was finally satisfied when I told her that I had eaten the blue pancakes she had left in the fridge – a family tradition, of the sorts. I wasn't annoyed at her for her hovering; Mom respected my privacy and cared about me more than anything. She deserved to be happy. _We_ deserved to be happy. Especially after… _before_ high school.

I waved at some other kids as Rachel and I made our way up the marbled staircase. The looming glass doors were bustling with rushed students, most of whom were seniors; the back entrance was the only reliable way to ensure the safety of your luggage, though. We were a boarding school and most of the students were filthy rich, so they brought a lot of stuff. Luckily, most of the upperclassmen had already dropped off their luggage and prepped their dorms during orientation, but it didn't really matter to me; I didn't bring any 72-inch plasma screen or sheep-skin blanket that required extra care. I mean I wasn't poor or anything, thanks to my mom's newfound success, but when I had enrolled things were much darker. I was scouted here for a swimming scholarship and made it, but it was active only as long as I maintained a 4.0. _That_ was a bother.

We slipped through the surging bodies and stepped into the school – as _seniors_. They foyer seemed a lot smaller. With respect, it was still titanic – with a giant, black and red banner screaming 'NYC Dragons!' – but it seemed tiny compared to how I saw it freshman year. I guess all freshman are a little intimidated by a new high school, though.

"Remember when you peed here?"

We both stopped walking and I felt my face explode with heat. I glared at her; she was flashing her own signature smirk, which would have been easier to hate if she wasn't so smoking hot.

"That is _not_ what happened." I spat back.

She shrugged and shuffled closer to me.

I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"You're cute when you're angry."

I scoffed. "Yeah, well when you're angry you're terrifying."

She let out a laugh and pecked me on the lips. "Let's get to the assembly."

The auditorium was congested with roaring lights and welcome balloons, but not with people; Half-Blood Academy's auditorium was more like a stadium, to put it simply. There weren't nearly enough seniors to fill the velvet seats and I ended up feeling like a toddler sitting in giant, leather chair from the 1800s. Rachel gripped my hand a little harder as we made our way down one of the aisles. I glanced around and spotted a familiar head full of sheen, auburn hair.

"Nico!" I tried not to yell so loudly, but I hadn't seen him the entire summer.

He didn't do anything at first except for twitch his ear. It wasn't until Rachel started yelling 'Death Breath!' that he finally rotated his head towards us. Nico's olive skin was radiating from the piercing stage lights but his eyes were as black as stone. It sounds funny, but his girlfriend Fey insisted on there being purple in his eyes, and I could kind of agree. He wasn't very fond of her saying that; Nico wasn't fond of any of his girlfriends in general, even the nice ones.

Rachel and I sped up to meet the flow of traffic and plopped down onto the seats next to our goth little friend. Okay, so he wasn't _goth_ ; he didn't even dress like it, but there was something dark about his aura which worked well with his black T and ripped jeans to scare people off. Not girls though. Nope, Nico was hot stuff around here.

"Hey, Percy," he said monotonously. He nodded his head towards Rachel, who promptly returned to her digital universe.

I tried to speak over the adolescent screams of 250 kids. "Whatcha been up to, Nico?"

"Nothing really."

"What? You did nothing the _entire_ summer?"

"Pretty much."

I swallowed. "Didn't you visit your Dad?"

He flashed me a look. It wasn't his signature death glare, although he tried to make it that way. We'd known each other way too long to be keeping secrets.

"Yeah…," he followed cautiously.

"And…?"

Nico grit his jaw. "And he was and asshole, Percy. What can I say?"

I looked forward. The huge, hardwood stage dwarfed the single microphone standing center-front, and I wondered just how much of that space was ever used even once.

"You don't need to be afraid of him," I whispered, and I knew he had heard me.

Before anything else could cut the tension, a sonic screeching blared from the stage. The noise only got worse with the following, unified whining of all the students whose eardrums had been punctured, but the commotion quickly died down as our principle stamped his foot. His name was Chiron – friendly and kind, but firm enough to scare the shit out of anyone who messed with him; so, basically the perfect leader.

"Okay now," he began, tapping the microphone for good measure. "Please settle down."

I glanced to the right and noticed that even Rachel was paying attention. Her phone was still on and in her lap, of course, but she was listening.

The room deftly fell to a silence, and Chiron continued. "Welcome to your last year, Class of 2016!"

The auditorium exploded in cheers and screams and other random noises the human body could produce out of adrenaline. I think a kid ripped his shirt off, but I just saw the faculty escorting someone out.

"Okay!" Chiron's deep, throaty voice managed to get everyone to shutup again. "We hope that you all had a good summer, and that you will have a great final year. There just might be a chance to graduate with no regrets, as long as you don't cave into senioritis."

Calm chuckles resonated from the audience. I nudged Rachel and she promptly slapped my hand with a red face. She had gotten senioritis in freshman year, but a C average was good enough to pass.

Chiron smiled. "Half-Blood Academy has been a haven for all and even a home for some. But this is your last year, so make sure you make the most of it. Before we begin with the customary new-year schedule announcements, we have to introduce our new student, as usual."

"What?" Rachel asked beside me.

I could understand her confusion; I felt the same way. Who would transfer to an internationally acclaimed _boarding_ school in _senior_ year? Even last year there were only three new students, two of whom had just moved to the U.S. But the confusion wasn't fooling anyone or the warm blood rushing through my veins.

We were excited.

Half-Blood was an old school with old customs – if you couldn't tell by the building itself. New students were inaugurated into their houses in an almost cultish fashion; okay, a _very_ cultish fashion. Chiron would ask them weird questions about themselves that had no relative importance to anything at all, and would then designate them to their house. It was pretty much Harry Potter without the hat.

But that series sucked anyway.

The iconic, simple-but-eloquent wooden chair was placed smack in the front of stage. It surfaced bittersweet memories that I really didn't want to remember right now, but of course, my brain had other plans. I remembered my thudding heart and sweaty palms, which were scratching at the underside of the wood. Granted, it was freshman year so everyone was going through the same process, but it was still terrifying. I couldn't even imagine how I would have survived if I was alone.

Chiron beamed and motioned his hand towards the edge of the stage. "Please give a warm welcome to your new classmate, peer, and Dragon: Annabeth Chase!"

The auditorium exploded with cheers, clapping, and perverted whistles. I looked at the projector hanging from the ceiling; whatever was happening on stage was impossible to see with mortal eyes.

It was a girl.

She had a light tan and long, blonde curls that just screamed California. But her eyes… _those_ were terrifying; either a very light blue or a stormy grey. Her firm steps showed that she didn't want to be seen as fragile, but her shaking shoulders pretty much gave her nervousness away. The girl – Annabeth – then awkwardly sat down in the chair and shuffled her slender legs in restlessness. I felt bad for her.

"Annabeth?" Chiron began.

Her head shot towards him with wide eyes. "Y-yes?"

"Are you ready?"

She look flustered by the question, like it pissed her off or something. "Would it matter if I wasn't?"

The whole crowd burst in 'Oohs.' I rolled my eyes.

Chiron let loose a laugh. "Let's get to it then." He cleared his throat and peered at an index card. The auditorium dimmed in consequence, now only illuminating the stage. "What would you do if you were in a store and saw someone steal food?"

I had the same exact question, and of course I gave the heroic answer: stop the thief. But never, in the four years I've witnessed others going through this tradition, have I heard a question as an answer.

"How… _much_ food? Like cost-wise? And did he look like he needed it?" She asked earnestly. Or maybe that was just sass.

Chiron paused. "Next question: if you saw your friend's boyfriend kissing another girl, would you tell her?"

He grimaced for that one. The questions were supposed to determine the characters of _teenagers_ , which didn't interest our grey-haired principal very much.

Annabeth scrunched her eyebrows. "Is the other girl my friend, too?"

"If there was a man banging on your door desperately to let him in, would you?"

"Do I have a doorbell?

"If your friend really needed your help, but it would be dangerous to help him, would you?"

"Yes."

And then that was it. Chiron just smirked and closed his eyes, like he was having some sort of inner revelation. After a moment of awkward silence, he motioned for Annabeth to stand up and walk to the front.

"Ladies and gentledragons," he began. "Allow me to introduce to you… THE NEW ATHENIAN!"

That was when my ears died. Rachel dove into my lap and Nico clamped his ears shut with his palms. House Athens was catapulting out of their seats and bellowing like _actual_ dragons. I think I saw some guy on the floor having some type of spazz-attack. This was always hard to get used to.

Annabeth looked mortified. Her eyes – definitely grey – were full moons and her knees were shaking. I saw a reflection of my freshmen self in her, except she was a senior and nobody was going to cut her any slack.

Rachel finally picked her head up. Her cheeks were flushed and she looked so dazed I thought she would pass out right then and there. I brushed a scarlet strand out of her face.

"It's okay. It's all going downhill from here," I whispered.

She nodded, aware of the imminent bore that was school news, dates, and announcements. I guess everybody was most excited for the inaugurations because it was the only part of the assembly that didn't put them to sleep. By the time it had ended, I had already forgotten that I was at school – which meant _class_.

The journey out of the auditorium took so long that I wouldn't have been surprised if school had just ended; for some reason, everyone thought that using multiple doors to get out was overrated when they could all just squeeze through one. Once I saw my fateful opening, I dove out the doorway, landing on my feet and taking a moment to regain my composure. Then, I dipped my fingers into my back pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. I already knew my schedule because of orientation, but a little part of my still held hope that my first class wasn't what I thought it was. My fingers shook as they unfolded the paper.

It was.

AP Calc with _Mrs_. _Hobbs_ – a supposed death sentence. Though I shouldn't really be complaining since I _chose_ to take it. I mean, it wasn't as if Math was my worst subject. Nope, that was English; I had dyslexia, which was a bother to get around, especially when your ADHD kicks your ass in the middle of a Shakespeare passage. So the problem wasn't math; it was Mrs. Satan-Spawn Hobbs. Curves to her were malarkey, and extra credit was worth laughing at. I knew a couple kids who had gotten As in her class, but most of them were either recluses or Math prodigies. I, on the other hand, was the captain of the swim team _and_ the fencing team, and had just enough intelligence to pass as competent – with all-night study sessions, of course.

I sighed and began my journey into hell.

The walls had been given a new coat of creamy white. It seemed like every day I saw some new appliance or refurbishment at Half-Blood. Last year they redid the entire football field – sod, turf, lights, seats and all. A lot of the money came from the fact that we were an old school – with history and whatnot – while the rest of it came from wealthy 'benefactors,' who were usually the kids' parents trying to establish some kind of syndicated pedigree.

I tried to hide my apprehension by playing it cool and waving to some kids I knew, but it went downhill after I passed by some… _friends_. Their names were Grover Underwood and Juniper Dryad. The two weren't really ones for privacy and had no issues with sucking face and other body parts in public. It was funny – Grover used to my _best_ friend. Somewhere along the line – around the time he met Juniper – he just started…falling. His grades fell. His calm charisma fell. His loyalty fell. All of it fell, and just because of a girl. I mean, we didn't _hate_ each other, but we stopped hanging long enough ago to make it seem that way. I think we both just accepted the fact that our friendship wasn't what it was anymore.

"Hi, Percy."

I looked to the right and quickly identified the face. My throat went dry. "Hey Silena."

She smiled.

Oh yeah, this was going to be awkward _as hell_.

You see, Silena was my first girlfriend. It happened during freshman year, and everyone was telling me that I was the hottest guy and that she was the hottest girl, so that meant we should have been together. We were shy and awkward, so we just kind of went along with it. It's not like it wasn't a bad thing – not even remotely; Silena was beautiful and gentle and smart, and she actually cared about me. It was weird, since _she_ was the one who broke it off, saying that we weren't really… _real_. I was okay with that, and so was she.

For a while.

It turned out that she actually _did_ love me, and we've been complicated ever since.

She tucked a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. "How…have you been?"

"Uh, I'm pretty good. Kinda bummed out that we're back in school, but happy too." I gestured towards her. "How about you?"

She blushed, which wasn't a good sign. "I've been well, Percy. I didn't really do anything over the summer so I'm…," she looked down and her cheeks got even redder. "…I'm happy to see my friends at school again."

"Me too. Well, not _all_ of them. Especially the Stolls – I have a feeling I'm going to wake up with a snake in my ass."

She laughed. "It's nice seeing you again, Percy."

This wasn't going well.

"Yeah, it was fun Silena." I shifted around and tried to make a break for it, but I felt something soft grab my hand. I looked back.

"Percy…"

"Silena," I sighed. "You know Rachel and I are together."

Her eyebrows furrowed with worry. "I know! I'm not trying to make things weird or complicated, but…it's just…"

I knew what was about to happen: she was going to cry. My skills in this area were abysmal, but I had to do _something_.

I grabbed her shoulders. "Silena, I never regretted being with you. I was happy, but things change. Can't we just be friends?"

Her eyes froze. "I was your first _everything,_ Percy. I was your first kiss. I was probably even the first girl you've hugged. I was your first make-out. I was your first late-night text. I was your first…," she shuffled as her face exploded in a crimson flare. "… _you know._ "

I gulped as sweat began to form at my temples.

Her dark bangs fell over her right eye. "And _you_ were _my_ first everything, too."

"I know," I whispered violently; the halls seemed a lot quieter. "Silena, come on. You have to let go."

"Percy I'm sorry for breaking up with you. Just, please…," she leaned in _way_ too close.

I wasn't sure what to do and my heart was about to explode. All of a sudden, a loud, metallic ringing echoed throughout the hallway. I knew what it was and my heart dropped. I violently jerked my head around, taking notice of the vacated halls.

Mrs. Hobbs was going to eat my alive.

"SHIT!" I screeched as I rotated my hips and began bolting down the hall. "SORRY SILENA, I GTG RIGHT QUICK!"

As my leather dress shoes pounded against the floor tiles, I wondered if I had just been saved by the bell or if it had sealed my demise.

Mrs. Hobbs room was the one four doors down from the next bathroom. I could make it within a minute.

I pumped my arms harder to pick up more speed. The air in my face whipped my black hair in every direction, so I had to keep slapping it away to see in front of me. In my primal blitz I almost missed the blur of tan doors and white gender signs. I twisted my torso and stopped in my tracks – would've even slipped if it weren't for my ADHD-induced reflexes.

I could tell I looked like a hobo, but there wasn't much shame in that as opposed to in getting a tardy on the first day. If Mrs. Hobbs didn't slaughter me, Rachel would.

So I ran. I ran as hard as I could, even though swimming was more my style, because style meant jackshit in this situation. The fourth door seemed like the entrance to heaven as it approached me. Every step I took counted the seconds I had left to live.

 _Five_.

I could see something shining. It was metal.

 _Four_

I almost tripped, but the glistening object was getting closer.

 _Three_

It was a doorknob.

 _Two_

I think I just ripped my pants… _and_ skinned my shoes. Gods, mom would kill me if she had to replace more of my clothing.

 _One_

I reached out, lunging as if I was diving for the T-down.

My hand met the cold, eerie metal and I jerked the door open with a little more force than needed. I wave of cold air punched me in the face; it was common knowledge that Mrs. Hobbs believed keeping the air to a solid freezing temperature would make her look younger. How much use was it if it could make you look 100 years less than 900? I took a daring step in, aware of the heavy stares and hushed chuckles of the seated students.

"Well, Mr. Jackson, it seems you have benevolently decided to grace us with your presence." Mrs. Hobbs voice was like a vulture's – throaty and chilling. I took a good look at her face.

And by the Gods, the rumors were right.

She had wrinkles as deep as valleys running down her jaws and over her chin. Her eyes were a monstrous black – cold and seething with venom. The giant glasses nestled on her shriveled nose were nowhere close the bridge; instead, it appeared as if she preferred looking over them to strike fear into the hearts of red-blooded teenagers.

It worked.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Hobbs. I-I couldn't find my Silena…I MEAN LOCKER!" I squealed and the room erupted in laughter.

Mrs. Hobbs peered at me. "Is that so? Then why do you have your backpack?"

I gulped. "I-I realized… that lockers suck. So I sprinted back." I tried to give her my best, Percy-patented grin. It probably looked like I was having a seizure.

"Just sit down, Mr. Jackson," she sighed, motioning for me to get lost. "I won't give you a tardy this once, but only because I'd like to see if your face when you start losing credit."

"T-thank you, Mrs. Hobbs!"

She returned her attention to the book in her hand. "You're not welcome."

I looked at the classroom. The seats were arranged master-style, with elevated rows – not as big as a college lecture hall, but a miniature, high school alternative. Most of the kids were either whispering to each other, staring at me, or sleeping.

"Mr. Jackson?"

I twisted my head so fast I heard a crack in my neck. "Yeah?"

"Why aren't you sitting?"

"I – uh…," I broke into another sweat. "…I'm not sure where to sit."

I didn't have friends in this class, and the only people I really knew were the girls, who were giving me this animalistic stare. This same situation went down in my last year's Econ class, which included excessive and unwanted groping. Hell, I would have been ecstatic to have girls all over me if I wasn't already in a relationship; Rachel had a way of finding out about everything, and I mean _every_ thing.

Mrs. Hobbs rolled her eyes. "You can sit next to…," she mumbled as her hawk eyes loomed over the class. I almost thought she had fallen asleep until her eyes widened with apparent satisfaction. "Ah! You can sit next to Ms. Chase – in the back."

I followed her finger. A girl with blonde hair was raising her hand, indicating who she was – like she knew that I wouldn't know her.

I made my way up the stairs, bearing the stabbing pain of Mrs. Hobbs' stare on my back. The sunlight was really coming down; it was only fall, but for some reason today was a lot… _brighter_ than usual.

I quietly slipped into the chair next to the girl and glanced at her. Her eyes paralyzed me for a moment, like they were brewing storms ready to wreak havoc on the world.

It was her.

"Hey," I whispered to her. "You're Annabeth! The new girl!"

She nodded in response, eyeing my tousled uniform.

"Oh, sorry," I fixed my tie. "I had to sprint here. I would say that I'm not usually late, but that would be a lie."

She nodded again, this time a little more confused. I was pretty good at making people think I was a weirdo. Maybe there was a major for that; I had to start applying to colleges soon, anyway.

"My name is Percy."

She raised an eyebrow. "Percy…?"

"It's short for Perseus. Most people wouldn't know, but he was a greek–"

"–demigod," she finished in unison.

I was pretty surprised that anyone knew my namesake. Some people did, but they weren't so quick to pick up on it.

I turned towards the front of the room and continued. "Are you into greek mythology or something?"

She paused. "Something like that…"

Well, _that_ was all dark and mystic. I saw Mrs. Hobbs write numbers on the board, signaling math to be done. I groaned with the rest of the class.

Annabeth, however, had a different reaction. Before I knew it, I heard the rustling of paper and saw that she had a notebook, pencil, and calculator ready-to-go.

"You really like Math, huh?" I asked, reaching into my backpack for paper. I didn't have a calculator, so I was pretty much screwed.

"Uh…something like that…"

I stopped mid-motion, and curled my body back towards her. "What do you mean?"

She just looked at me, and for a moment I thought she was going to slap me. But then, she just cocked her head away and exhaled. "I don't even know."

Umm…. _what the hell_?

I furrowed my eyebrows. "You're really vague, you know that?"

"Am I?" she asked earnestly.

"Yes."

She shrugged, and began working on the problem on the board.

I wasn't sure where I was planning on going with what I had in mind, but I just let it loose. "You're from House Athena and I'm from House Poseidon, so were' pretty much going to have to hate each other."

She was vigorously working her pencil into her lined notebook. "Well then," she turned towards me. "It'll be interesting to see how we'll survive this class side-by-side."

I felt like the world had flipped upside-down. Usually, _I_ was the mysterious one – the person for whom people ripped their hair out while trying to understand.

I looked into her grey eyes and smirked. "You're right. It'll be interesting."


End file.
